The Day My Heart Stopped Beating
by couldahadav8
Summary: He'd saved her countless times. She'd saved him when he hadn't even known he'd needed it. But when Troy's past starts to resurface, no one is safe. Troyella


**A/N- Hey, sorry I haven't been writing much lately. School and my fall sports season started so life's totally nuts right now. Updates will be spaced out until things slow down so bear with me (is that the right bear?) Anyway, review and let me know what story you really want me to update first and I'll focus on that one the most. This one just sort of came to me, too much Stephenie Meyer books lately I guess. Tell me what you think!! **

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**Prologue**

She knew that she wasn't going to make it much farther, and with her pursuer only moments behind... She could tell by the sound of her exhausted gait that it would all be over soon. They were going to catch her, and then they'd kill her. Nothing could save her now, except Troy.

She struggled to stay upright as his beautiful face flashed through her mind. She choked back a sob and stumbled blindly forward. _"Stupid, stupid, stupid. Why did you think about him?"_ she scolded herself.

Nothing good could ever be associated with Troy Bolton, not without being associated with pain. And not the normal teenage pain, no not this time. This new pain is an unadulterated pain that is deeper than deep. It pierces you to the soul are tears away at every part of your body. It rips and gnashes at you until all you can focus on is the agony and despair it leaves you in. You pray that it goes away but you know that it will never lessen. You realize that you'll have to live the rest of your life with this pain. And that realization adds more pain.

You try to keep on the straight and narrow but the road starts to swerve and suddenly, you're falling. That's when they come for you, and when they find you, all is lost.

But if you're careful, and don't fall, you'll see that up ahead, there's a way out. The road forks. One road leads to peace and everything you want, it leads you to _them_. The other is dark and treacherous, definitely the road less traveled. No one has ever gone down this road and lived to tell about it.

That road is deadly. That road is a trap. That was the road that Gabriella Montez chose. And now she's paying for it.

Paying for it, not regretting it. She'd never regret her decision to be with Troy. Not that she'd live long enough to... no even then she'd never regret it. What they'd told her couldn't be true. She'd never believe them. Troy had warned her about them. They were liars, they were all liars. She'd follow Troy anywhere. Even into her grave. What a coincident that she was heading there now.

She smiled to herself. She wasn't sure why, but it seemed that no matter what happened, being with Troy would lead to her ultimate demise. No one else, especially Troy, would find that even remotely funny, but Gabriella did. Maybe it was the freedom that she was going to die soon that allowed her to laugh at things most would consider morbid.

Something exploded from behind and she turned to see a cloud of dust a ways back, an agitated yowl followed. The sound twisted her insides, turned her blood cold, and brought goosebumps to her skin; even though the desert sun was beating down mercilessly on her battered and dying body. And all too soon, she realized what was happening. They were closer than she'd thought, and more heavily armed. She watched in horror as the disk rose into the air, sending up a flurry of sand and dust.

Gabriella turned and ran towards the dunes. There had to be somewhere to hide. They couldn't find her. Adrenaline pumped through her veins as the disk sped towards her. Had it seen her? Something hit the ground behind her and sent her flying through the air. They'd seen her alright. She hit the ground with a thud and rolled to a stop.

Gabriella could only watch as the death machine came to a stop and hovered in mid air. But it wasn't the metal hover-disk, the emerging red-eyed monster, or her imminent death that froze her in place at that moment. It was the figure on the dunes above that was rushing towards them inhumanly fast. He was back.

"Troy!"

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**A/N- Ok, good, bad. Love it, hate it? Wutcha think?**


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